By now I’m sure you consider Stian Berg to be your friend, just as I do. The shamanic practitioner from Norway has sent along his thoughts and photos twice since he first purchased a Thunder Drum back in December, 2016. And now he offers this update:

Midnight in Norway! (Photo by Stian Berg)

Looks like sunrise…but it’s midnight!

“I love midnight sun,” he says of the area near his hometown of Bodø, Norway in an email that accompanied the photo. That’s quite a difference from the scenes depicting his surroundings last December (article) when it’s dark as night at midday. (You can see more daylight scenes from his update a few months ago in April.)

Thinking about this can really alter one’s perception of time and place, and reveals just how parochial our thoughts can be. Here in Kentucky we are keyed to the shifting light of the four seasons that swing from long to short days through the equinoxes and the resulting influences that affect our bodies and attitudes. Heck, I admit that even this time of year, when the days are deliciously long, I occasionally experience a fleeting worry that winter and diminishing light aren’t far off.

Not so for Stian, as he enjoys the plunge into month’s-long darkness and the re-emergence into equally long periods of loving sunlight. He is, in other words, in perfect alignment with his environment.

So the next time you may experience stress at the gradual loss of daylight, like will inevitably begin this September and deepen until late December, simply remember Stian. His nighttime last for months. But so do his days. And he loves the seasons as they present themselves in his area, no matter how much or how little light.

He is the living epitome of the old saying, “Bloom Where You Are Planted.” Even if there’s no sun, he’s proof that you can flourish from the light within.